Having come to faith in the God of Israel in the winter 1975, Rabbi Lowinger holds an ordination with the International Alliance of Messianic Jewish Congregations and Synagogues (IAMCS). He resides in Buffalo, New York with his wife, Margaret. Together, they are the proud parents of three children who have blessed them with four grand children and two wonderful in-laws.

Rabbi Lowinger was reared in a Conservative Jewish home, the eldest son of a Holocaust survivor. He graduated from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY with a degree in accounting and marketing. He went on to earn a degree in Ministerial Studies from Berean College in Springfield, Missouri, and has done course work in the Jewish studies program of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Rabbi Lowinger has been a regular speaker at the annual conference of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA), held each July in Harrisburg, PA. On the international scene, he has taught at the Messianic Jewish Bible Institutes both in Budapest, Hungary and Odessa, Ukraine as well as having had opportunities to teach amongst congregations in Israel, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Canada. Locally, Rabbi has hosted the TV show “Messianic Judaism Today” and has appeared frequently on “Ask the Pastor” and “The Answer.”

Currently, Rabbi Lowinger is the shepherd of Congregation Brith Hadoshah Messianic Synagogue, a position he has held since 1983. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America and is a past President. In addition, Rabbi has served many years on the Steering Committee of the IAMCS and is now the ordaining body’s Chairman. Rabbi Lowinger is a Board Member and Officer for the Resource Center for Jewish Ministry in Cincinnati, Ohio, and serves as President of the Messianic Times newspaper.

OUR ELDERS

Mike MerloI was raised as a “moderate” Roman Catholic until 1981 when I encountered Jesus the Messiah in a profound and personal way. It was shortly after that, through a study in Genesis, that I began to recognize how the roots of my new found faith were grounded in the Abrahamic Covenant, and specifically the stark imagery of Messiah in the binding of Isaac. I soon realized that everything in the Torah pointed to Messiah and the Jewishness of the Gospels. In 1986 I was introduced to Messianic Judaism and Brith Hadoshah. As a non-Jewish believer in the Messiah of Israel, Messianic Judaism has been foundational to my life. I have come to realize that as a Gentile believer, I have a responsibility to be faithful to Romans 1:16. Paul/Sha’ul speaks of the power of the gospel to “bring salvation to everyone who believes; first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” I remember a friend telling me once that when he talked to someone who was Jewish, that it always occurred to him that Yeshua was their brother before he was ours.

This serves to remind me that God has a love relationship with His people. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that restoration? My wife Lora and I have come to appreciate the richness of this Godly heritage and I was made an elder at CBH in 2004.

Alan JeffEver since I was seven years old, I had questions about the meaning of life, but never got any answers. I believed in God, but as far as interacting with God, I stopped short.

After I finished graduate school, and after a couple of failed relationships, I began to ask my friend Debbie questions about her faith. My questioning came to a head on Labor Day 1978, when Debbie and her husband invited me to a picnic.

That day we talked a lot about having a personal relationship with Yeshua. I prayed the way Debbie had shown me and I felt relief from the emotional pain of the broken relationships. I also felt like I had received answers to the meaning of life that I had always puzzled over. I had never before experienced these feelings of joy, wholeness, and peace. I spent the rest of the day walking alone in the woods praying, connecting with the Messiah I had just met.

I know Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah through His fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures: Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7, 53 and Psalm 22. These Scriptures revealed things to me about His life –birth, ministry, death.

If I didn’t have Yeshua, my life would be empty. He restored me; leading me from a life of questioning to a life of fulfillment, hope, joy, and meaning. Since that day, I have maintained my Jewishness and been involved with Congregation Brith Hadoshah since its inception. I was born a Jew and I will die a Jew. I had a Jewish wedding and my family observes all of the Biblical Jewish holidays since they are ordained in the Scriptures. I believe that is how G-d intends to maintain His Jewish remnant.

When my mother found out about my new-found Jewish faith, she refused to speak with me for weeks; however, on her death bed in 1999, she accepted Yeshua and His offer of salvation and eternal life. As for my father, he passed away when I was still a teenager, before I met Yeshua. I know, through the grace and mercy of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through His unconditional love for me, and because He said that it is not His will that any should perish, that my father had been offered the chance for salvation through Yeshua even as he breathed his last. Knowing my dad, he would have recognized and embraced this truth and I know we will all be reunited for eternity, worshiping our G-d together. Baruch HaShem!